Coin Silver's run is pure gold

Long shot wins Lexington Stakes, qualifies for Derby

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, April 24, 2005

LEXINGTON, KY. - Trainer Todd Pletcher's stable for the Kentucky Derby grew to three Saturday, but there won't be a return trip to Churchill Downs for John Servis and Stewart Elliott.

Coin Silver, a 13-1 long shot in a seven-horse field, pulled away in the stretch and won the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, giving Pletcher another horse to run in the Derby.

Rockport Harbor, trained by Servis — who won last year's Derby with Smarty Jones — faded in the stretch and finished sixth as the 3-5 favorite. The loss will keep Rockport Harbor out of the Derby in two weeks, Servis said.

"He never got a hold of the track," Servis said. "That's par for the course with the way things have been going this year."

Rockport Harbor, ridden by Elliott, last year's Derby-winning jockey, has been bothered for months by nagging leg and hoof injuries, and also is recovering from a blood clot in his neck that kept him out of the Arkansas Derby a week earlier.

The gray son of Unbridled's Song, unbeaten as a 2-year-old, never held the lead in the 11/16th-mile Lexington, which was run over a sloppy track and with the temperature at 42 degrees, stiff northwest winds blowing and a light rain falling.

"By the first turn, I knew he didn't care for the mud at all," Elliott said.

Sort It Out, trained by Bob Baffert and partially owned by the stable belonging to Texans owner Bob McNair, finished second and earned $65,000.

However, it's not enough to crack the top 20 list of graded-stakes earners, meaning Baffert, who has won the Derby three times, likely will miss the race for the second straight year.

In other races

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Close calls at Aqueduct
— Better Talk Now and Pleasant Home won co-featured Grade III stakes at Aqueduct.
Better Talk Now edged Remind by a neck in the 29th running of the $112,100 Fort Marcy Handicap for horses 3 and older.

Pleasant Home staged a strong late run for a 5 1/4 -length upset victory over Traci Girl in the 49th running of the $107,700 Bed O'Roses Breeders' Cup Handicap.